My Appearance on WGST's "The Sully Show" 10/31/14 - Tech News of the Week

News topics:  Rick and Sully look at some of the top tech stories of the week...

A Halloween edition of Rick on "The Sully Show"

Have a listen:

listen to ‘The Sully Show October 31, 2014’ on audioBoom

1.   It was "National Teen Driver Safety Week" and October is safe driving month

Rick attended the #SafeTeen event at Six Flags two weeks ago, where he go to see new technology from Straight Talk Wireless.

And he got to drive the test track with Indy Car Racer Scott Harrington and see a cool new product -

Safe Driver Car Connection, a new device from Straight Talk Wireless that monitors everything the car does as a new driver gets behind the wheel and disables incoming calls and texts when the car is in motion.  Parents can track the results right on their smartphone

Also "parents are the key" to teens driving safely.

 

2.  YouTube is going to offer a paid subscription service

YouTube is moving ahead with its plan to offered a paid subscription service that would allow viewers to skip the pre-roll ads, YouTube senior vice president Susan Wojcicki said last night.
The option is "near term," Wojcicki said during Monday's Code Mobile conference in California, according to The Wall Street Journal.

"There are going to be cases where people are going to say, 'I don't want to see ads,'" according to Wojcicki, who took over as YouTube's top exec in February.

3.  Hungary - the first country to tax internet traffic

Uh oh

The Hungarian government has announced a new tax on internet traffic: 150 HUF ($0.62 USD) per gigabyte. In Hungary, a monthly internet subscription costs around 4,000-10,000 HUF ($17-$41), so it could really put a constraint on different service providers, especially for streaming media. This kind of tax could set back the country's technological development by some 20 years — to the pre-internet age.

As a side note, the Hungarian government's budget is running at a serious deficit. The internet tax is officially expected to bring in about 20 billion HUF in income, though a quick look at the BIX (Budapest Internet Exchange) and a bit of math suggests a better estimate of the income would probably be an order of magnitude higher.

4.  Verizon Announces The Motorola Droid Turbo With Battery Super Powers

Motorola and Verizon are announcing the Droid Turbo, a new Droid-branded smartphone with a focus on super fast charging capabilities.

Verizon claims the phone can get eight hours of battery life in 15 just minutes by using a special turbo charger sold with the phone. And beyond that, a fully charged Droid Turbo promises 48 hours of battery life. Obviously, this is going to differ based on use.

The company says that they can accomplish this with a massive 3900mAh battery (for perspective, the Galaxy Note 4 packs a 3220mAh battery) and smarter software to use battery as efficiently as possible, as well as charging it as quickly as possible.

The Droid Turbo has a 5.2-inch “Quad HD” display, comes XLTE ready, and sports a 21-megapixel camera capable of capturing 4K video. Under the hood you’ll find the Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 processor and 3GB of RAM. And, considering the longstanding relationship between Droid and Android, the phone is running pure Android with just a few special Moto “experiences” that lay on top, including smart gestures.

The phone comes in 32GB and 64GB versions, with options for black Ballistic Nylon, Metallic Black or Metallic Red.

The 32GB model starts at $199 on contract or $25/month with Verizon Edge, and the 64GB model goes for $249 on contract or $27/month with Edge.

Verizon is also offering a handful of deals for this device, waiving all activation and upgrade fees and $100 for any working condition trade-in during purchase of a new Droid Turbo. All of it is available starting on October 30.
 

5.  US movie industry bans Google Glass, other wearable devices at all cinemas

Google Glass and other wearable devices are now officially off-limits in the cinema.

On Oct 29, the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and the National Association of Theatre Owners (NATO) announced an update to their joint policy to prevent film theft in theatres, prohibiting recording by users equipped with Google Glass or other wearables in theatres.
The update “was made to fully integrate wearable tech into the rules following a joint meeting of NATO and MPAA theatrical anti-piracy teams,” the lobbying organisation said. The announcement was made at ShowEast 2014, NATO’s annual industry confab in Hollywood, Florida.

The issue, while it hasn’t cropped up much, has prompted Hollywood to act. This January, a man who was wearing a Google Glass headset during a showing of Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit at an AMC Theatres location in Columbus, Ohio, was questioned by agents from the Department of Homeland Security about whether he was illegally recording the film.

Here is the is full statement from the groups:
“The National Association of Theatre Owners (NATO) and the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) have a long history of welcoming technological advances and recognise the strong consumer interest in smart phones and wearable ‘intelligent’ devices. As part of our continued efforts to ensure movies are not recorded in theatres, however, we maintain a zero-tolerance policy toward using any recording device while movies are being shown. As has been our long-standing policy, all phones must be silenced and other recording devices, including wearable devices, must be turned off and put away at show time. Individuals who fail or refuse to put the recording devices away may be asked to leave. If theatre managers have indications that illegal recording activity is taking place, they will alert law enforcement authorities when appropriate, who will determine what further action should be taken.”